Militants kill 6 Red Cross workers in Afghanistan

By Mujib Mashal

Published 1:07 pm, Wednesday, February 8, 2017

KABUL — Six employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross were killed and two others were missing after an attack in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday that officials attributed to local affiliates of the Islamic State.

“This is a despicable act. Nothing can justify the murder of our colleagues and dear friends,” said the head of the Red Cross delegation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli. “At this point, it’s premature for us to determine the impact of this appalling incident on our operations in Afghanistan.”

The Taliban, who still inflict the largest share of violence in the 15-year war that has escalated in recent years, quickly denied that they were behind the attack.

The Red Cross has a 30-year history of helping war victims in Afghanistan, providing crucial medical aid to areas near the battlefield. The insurgency also relies on Red Cross volunteers to retrieve the bodies of their dead in large parts of the country and to help families of their detainees communicate with them in prison.

But in a recent report, the Red Cross expressed concerns about “the shrinking access of humanitarian aid workers in numerous parts of the country” because of “the intensification of conflict related violence.”

The governor of Jowzjan province, Lutfullah Azizi, blamed Islamic State affiliates for the attack.

Azizi said the Red Cross had begun a mission to distribute livestock material in the Qosh Tepa area of Jowzjan province, where the attack happened, but their mission was paused by recent avalanches. When workers went to resume the aid distribution, they were targeted.

In recent weeks, officials in northern Afghanistan also have expressed concern about an increase in foreign fighters there, many of them suspected of affiliation with the Islamic State.